Putting analysis and planning to use

This week I spent a lot of time in the simulation.  I wanted to put what we had been talking about to use.  I took my time with each of the periods.  I had the vision of growing Allstar into the leading provider of OTC cold and allergy medication.  I planned to accomplish this by increasing market share through development of new customers, retention of current customers, and expending the product line in the allergy market.  I learned that the advertising mix and the promotional decision were critical.  I also learned that I needed to increase the price every period to ensure that net income increased to continue to support my marketing budget.  I studied the various reports to understand each period what the customers thought of my products as well as what they thought of the competitor’s products. 

I did a competitor analysis.   I started by determining which competitor to study.  I used the tradeoffs survey, manufacturer sale, brand formulation and operating statistics reports to help select competitor.  I then used the promotion, pricing, sales force reports to focus my promotion, advertising and sales force to gain market share.   I focused on direct competitors and did not worry about the indirect ones or potential future offerings from the other companies.  At the conclusion of the simulation, Allstar had a commanding position in both cold and allergy.  Allright (allergy) had a 48.5% market share while Allround and Allround+ had a combined 34.5% market share.    

Although I studied the competition, I spent more time figuring out what the customer wanted.  I study the customer through the shopping habits and purchase intentions reports.  I found these reports very helpful in targeting my sales force, promotional allowances, and advertising to the channels that were contributing most to my sales.  I can see that having a marketing plan made the decisions in each period very easy.  I did not go on auto pilot, adjustments had to be made to the plan because I am still learning some of the cause and effect relationships. 

I had a few metrics that I was looking at each period.   I was definitively looking for growth.  I like the dashboard as quick tool for seeing if the choices from the previous period kept Allstar on track.  The portfolio graph was not as useful.  If you have the wrong view selected, you might discontinue a product that still has potential.  I was tempted to kill the Allround+ line because in the standard view it was a dog but in the narrow view it is slitting the line with cash cow.   I looked at the income statement every period and I could see that if I had not been targeting growth, I could have maximized profits and really brought in some cash.  In the end, Allstar had over $1112 million in retail sales.  Another indication of the growth that I saw was the increase of production capacity twice during the simulations 10 periods.